Mac OS X Yosemite - Everything you need to know

Apple had two exciting announcements at its annual WWDC conference: iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite. We've already rounded up everything you need to know about the former; now here's the lowdown on the latter, which is named after a beautiful place in California.

Mac OS X Yosemite brings with it a new look. While arguments rage on about whether it copies from Windows Vista, iOS 7 or both, we think it looks the bee's knees. The new typography is arguably cleaner, while the use of translucency for features like the Calendar and Notification Bar helps emphasise what's on screen. At the very least it will feel fresh.

Spotlight

Spotlight is hardly new, but in OS X Yosemite brings its recommendations to an easy to find search bar. Typing something will now bring up contact details, calendar events, Wikipedia articles, nearby places of interest - all of which should help you find what you want with less hassle. Spotlight can also be found in the Safari browser URL bar.

Apple is keen on the term seamless, which is why iOS 8 and your Mac will get along better than ever. With OS X Yosemite, it will be possible to make or answer a call from your Mac, regardless of whether your iPhone is in the room or not. You can even send and receive messages from an Android and iOS device.

Handoff

Jumping from a Mac to an iPhone or iPad normally means restarting the task you were doing. With Handoff, you can easily resume where you were by pressing the Handoff button on your iOS device and you will see the task appear on your Mac. You can also resume looking at, say, a website on your Mac on an iOS device.

Sidebar

A sidebar called Notification Center works like it does on iOS 8, giving you notifications of what's been going on with your Mac in one handy place. Vista users may notice the similarity between it and the rather handy Windows Sidebar.

AirDrop benefits from improved sharing functionality in Mac OS X Yosemite. Now you can easily share files between a Mac and iOS 8 devices. All you have to do is locate the file or folder you want to share on your Mac and then use AirDrop to deliver it.

Email improvements

Mac OS X Yosemite has a few handy new email-specific features. Send a file up to 5GB in size and the recipient will get a download link if they are using a rival operating system (cough Windows) or an older version of Mac OS. Yosemite users will see Mail Drop separate, encrypt and upload the attachment to iCloud before doing the reverse on the other side so it all appears seamless. Email also has something called MarkUp for defacing and annotating images and PDFs.

Soft spot for Hotspot

When out and about OS X Yosemite will let you use your iPhone as a Hotspot without having to go through a painful pairing process. Just head into the WiFi menu on your Mac and connect. Connecting up this way lets you see the signal strength and battery level of your iPhone.

OS X Yosemite gives you more freedom in the cloud. The iCloud Drive makes it easier to access and view your files stored on any iOS or OS X device. An iCloud Drive app will be coming to Windows, too, so no need to mess about trying to find what you need if you regularly use both operating systems.

When is it available?

Mac OS X Yosemite will be released in the autumn and will be a free download. Developers and willing guinea pigs can test out the beta now.